This guest column was submitted by William Ellis of Bloomington, founder of the Monroe County Citizens Against the Food and Beverage Tax.
As we approach the end of summer vacation
, we are hopefully approaching the end to this year’s debate on instituting a countywide 1 percent tax to fund an expansion of the Bloomington/Monroe County Convention Center.
, we are hopefully approaching the end to this year’s debate on instituting a countywide 1 percent tax to fund an expansion of the Bloomington/Monroe County Convention Center.
There may be those who shrug and ask,“What’s 1 percent?”
Well, that nominal 1 percent increase in the sales tax — 1 penny per dollar — is in reality a 14.3 percent increase in tax. Any time we have an increase such as this, it’s worth examining the cause.
When we examine the reason this tax has been requested, we see a proposal built on promises but very little hard evidence.
To be fair, it’s hard to claim 100 percent accuracy when dealing with future projections but most don’t expect that.
What they do expect are some concrete plans as to how money collected is going to be spent. Concrete protections, to the taxpayers, mean that if the projections do not materialize, government and favored business won’t be asking the taxpayers to bail them out.
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Considering this tax will hit everyone that eats at a restaurant or anything prepared from a grocery store, doesn’t our Monroe County Council owe it to them to make sure some of these “unknowns” have solid answers?
When the proposal to increase the sales tax to 8 percent for prepared food and beverages at restaurant and grocery stores finally comes to a vote, we may not know where the money is ultimately going. We may not know if the tax is ever going to end. We may not know if their projections are going to come true.
If the tax is passed, there will be a lot of unknowns but there will be one unequivocal thing we know: Once again those of us that can least afford it will be paying for someone else’s gamble.
